TNG Rewatch: 7x24 - "Preemptive Strike"

[Trekker4747]

More like “Penultimate Strike” am I right guys, who’s with me?

Okay, sorry.

Yes, this is the penultimate episode of the series -counting AGT as one episode- and it’s taken us a while -particularly me- a while to get here. But we’re going to plow through this one and hopefully we’ll have the series done by the end of the year before we start it all again! (I hear you crying out nos.)

I’ve been sort of working on the AGT recap a bit, mostly thinking out how to do it and to do screen caps and stuff to break-up the paragraphical monotony of the double-length episode’s recap/”review.”

So, without further ado let’s go into “Preemptive Strike” where we meet some old friends and begin a plot thread/tangent that’ll play a large role during Deep Space Nine’s run and even a small part in Voyager.

The Enterprise is enroute for a debriefing on the demilitarized zone along the Cardassian border and already I start nodding off with memories of Episode 1 trade blockades and tariffs begin filling my head; but meanwhile the crew is welcoming the return of an old friend.

The Outrageous Okana?!

No, it’s Ensign, now Lieutenant, Ro whom we haven’t seen since sometime in the sixth season she enters a reception being held in Ten Forward and is immediately greeted by Troi, Crusher and Geordi who seem to overwhelm her with greetings and talk of the genuine Bajoran food at the buffet she stirs a bit and watches Picard leave the room through the opposing door. She seems to try and to placate the others with the small talk but they’re shortly interrupted by Picard on the comm system paging her to the bridge. Well, he got up there and felt he needed her pretty fast.
Actually he’s right out in the corridor outside Ten-Forward, he saw Ro’s discomfort and gave her an out; she says she’s happy to be back and wants to see everyone again; she’d just rather do it in a less public setting. They do a walk-and-talk filling in where Ro’s been the last year or so, apparently doing some kind of physical/tactical training somewhere else and has they talk…. I think Picard is hitting on her. He sort-of guides her at one point and complements how “fit” she looks; Ro stirs a bit uncomfortably. Not like a nervous subordinate dealing with a frisky boss but well, more like a young woman who has a crush on a man she respects and admires and here is being all touchy with her.

But it seems to me more something akin to a hero worship or respect for Picard as she thanks him for all of the support and recommendations he’s given her since they met each other, saying her life would be very different now had it not been for Picard taking such an active role in her life. Which he did, it’s a shame we didn’t see this much between them beyond Ro’s introductory episode, I think the most their relationship was touched on was when she was “cloaked/phased” in “The Next Phase” and she believes herself to be a spirit and needing to say goodbyes to loved ones before passing on and she talks to Picard about her admiration of him.

Their conversation is soon interrupted by Riker, who’s on the bridge and couldn’t be arsed to reunite with Ro in Ten-Forward even though the two of them had boiling sexual chemistry between them no matter how much they tried to deny it. Riker says there’s a distress signal from a Cardassian ship near the DMZ, Picard says he’ll be there and says he wants Ro at the controls.

There was a Cardassian ship on long range sensors not responding to hails, Ro is able to find it on the sensors and see that it is being attacked by other small ships. Data is able to determine the attacking vessels are Federation ships.

When they’re able to get a visual on the ships Picard notes that they’re not Federation ships, though it seems the passengers in them are Federation citizens, Picard calls them the Maquis. Ooooh…. Who?

Everyone is a bit shocked by this, Picard tries hailing the small fleet of ships to call of their attack on the Cardassian ship but they ignore the hails. When the ship is weapons range, Riker grumbles how he can’t believe they’re about to fire on Federation citizens. Picard has Worf detonate a spread of torpedoes between the Maquis ships; enough to disrupt their formation and flight pattern without damaging the ships.

The maneuver is successful and the Maquis ships flee the area while the Enterprise remains behind to tend to the damaged Cardassian ship and its wounded.

The Cardassian commander isn’t too happy with how the Federation seems unable or unwilling to deal with the Maquis problem which, apparently, have been a constant nuisance in the DMZ for the Cardassians, the commander questions how the Maquis -made up of Federation citizens and defected Starfleet officers- got their hands on Starfleet weaponry. Picard assures him that Starfleet didn’t provide them with anything and that they will get to the bottom of the problem. Both men question the other’s government’s ability to maintain the DMZ and prevent attacks on Cardassian ships.

The conversation ends in a stalemate with an idle threat from the Cardassian commander that more serious action may be taken in the future if the Federation doesn’t do a better job of policing its citizens in the DMZ.

The ships part ways and the Enterprise continues on its original course and rendezvous with an Excelsior-Class ship ferrying Admiral Nechayev (yay!) to discuss the current situation. Nechayev sits cooly on the Ready Room sofa/hide-a-bed and welcome Picard’s serving of tea, questioning -coyly- why Picard didn’t roll out the red carpet for her like he did during her last visit. Damn this woman was awesome, we needed more of her.

Her and Picard discuss the problems with Cardassian and DMZ and how attacks from the Maquis are regular but they have no reliable intelligence on them, where they’re hiding, where they’re coming from, where they’re getting their equipment, ships and other resources. They want to use Ro, due to her recent Starfleet Team Six training, to go undercover to infiltrate the Maquis before they unwittingly ignite another war between the Federation and Cardassian. They also feel Ro’s being Bajoran will also help her to get in with Maquis.

Ro accepts the assignment, saying that a commander in her combat training courses defected to the Maquis and she wants to solidify Picard’s faith in her.

Ro, in civilian clothing, walks into the best TV-Trek can do for the Mos Eisley cantina just before a dude with an alien mullet walks out. She scans the room and stands off to the side behind a support column near an alien male. She watches as Data and Worf walk into the room and then immediately begins making out with the alien.

Worf and Data scan the now quiet room and announce they’re looking for a Bajoran woman with dark hair responsible for some deaths, the room remains quiet. They further point out how if they found out she’s been there they’ll have the establishment shut down.

This is a pretty interesting “outside look” and Starfleet from the roguish aliens’ point of view, almost akin to Star Wars and how civilians look at The Empire. Not to say there’s any similarity whatsoever between Starfleet/The Federation and The Empire but the tone of the scene has very much a feeling -from these aliens’ POV, of how the aliens in the Star Wars movies looked at The Empire. This Is even odder when considering that this bar is on a planet in Federation territory so you’d think the fear wouldn’t be this strong.

A man at the bar says he saw the woman but she left shortly before Worf and Data came in, they nod and leave the bar. Ro finishes kissing her distraction and tries to leave as he tries to pull her back, saying “It was nice to meet you.”

She stands at the bar and nods towards the man and says, “Thanks.” The man approaches her and asks if she had really killed a Cardassian, she says Starfleet things she did which is enough. The man says there’s worse things than killing a Cardassian and implies about a group of people who feel the same way. Ro says she’d like to meet them, the man stuns her.

She wakes up later in a Maquis compound to find three people, including the man in the bar, looking over her. They assure her she’s not in danger they just want to ask her some questions. Ro takes her usual pleasant self and dials it up to 11 and recounts an accurate story of her past only she says she went AWOL from Starfleet because it didn’t suit her, she was tired of them placating the Cardassians.

She asks if the group are Maquis, they don’t give her a definitive answer; she says if they are she’d want to join them. The leader sends two of them off to verify her story and he takes Ro out to look over the compound while he exposits.

The man verifies that some of the people in the compound are Maquis and explains that the Maquis are mostly made up of formerly Federation civilians living on the planets now controlled by the Cardassians after the borders were redrawn a few episodes ago. It seems the Cardassians aren’t holding up their end of the bargain and are mistreating the Federation civilians though seem to be covering their asses by chalking them up to mistakes; hence why the Federation seems reluctant to do anything about it.

Ro and the leader continue talking about Bajoran/Cardassian history, largely from the guy as he eats a large, Bajoran, vegetarian, near Chipotle-sized burrito he orders from a replicator in a cafe. Ro is surprised at the guy’s like for the dish and the guy tells a story about his history and discovery of the dish. Ro says he father used to make a good brine for the dish, I’m guessing for some meat or slaw or something in the burrito, the leader guy lights up at this saying he’d be made very happy if Ro were to make it for him. Ro seems to, genuinely, enjoy the man’s company and says she’d be happy to do that.

The other two Maquis soldiers come back saying Ro’s story checks out; the man is glad to hear it and tells Ro to bunk with the female soldier…. Who looks none too happy about this development. Is it me or did all of this seem kind of easy? Why didn’t Starfleet do this months ago when the problem started?

Sometime later there’s a meeting with a group of Maquis members, with Ro included, and they talk of a rumor of the Cardassians trying to bring (24th century version of biological weapons) into the DMZ. Ro wonders how they can do so with the blockade and is told the Cardassians have managed to get through them before.

The soldier from the bar says it’s time for a preemptive strike (roll credits!) and for them to send a signal to the Cardassians that they will not stand by and allow themselves to be killed with the biological weapons. The leader agrees, but they can’t launch a major attack because they don’t have the medical supplies to deal with the injuries in the aftermath without raising suspicions from the Federation about the request. … Er... Why are they talking about the Federation as some draconian entity, this almost feels on par with the way the characters in Firefly talked about The Alliance. I know I said earlier how interesting it is to see this side of civilian life in the ST universe but this seems a bit over the top considering how we’re often seen Starfleet being depicted. Them being stingy and asking questions about medical supplies seems out of character for them. I mean when have we seen Starfleet be stingy with anything for those in need let alone medical supplies?

Ro says she can get ahold of medical supplies due to connections she still has in Starfleet, the Maquis are dubious she can steal medical supplies from Starfleet, let alone from her former post the Enterprise which they regard as a fortress. Honey, not to be mean to Starfleet or the Enterprise but we’ve seen it get punked quite a few times buy groups weaker than yours. I think you’ve got this.

 

[Trekker4747]

In a very Point Break/The Fast and the Furious manner the leader seems intent to trust the new recruit’s claims and boastings and allows her to try her plan to get the medical supplies. The hostile female soldier says she wants to go along; Ro and her continue to do the female equivalent of dick-swinging during the mission as Ro technobabbles her way through the blockades without going through a check-point and beaming the supplies off the ship (I guess there’s just a big room full of them with one inept guard at the door rather than the supplies being replicated on demand.) She either fakes or has genuine hurdle as she “hacks” her way through the sensor buoys along the border and successfully gets them across the border.

Apparently a week has passed since Ro went undercover when all of this is happening, the Enterprise responds to a distress signal being sent out by a ship in the DMZ, the Enterprise goes to intercept it knowing that the star in the system will make their sensors vastly less effective. On the Maquis ship the female soldier remains apprehensive about Ro’s plan as she continues to BS her way through disguising their ship as a damaged civilian vessel, passing it through a “weak point” in the ship’s shields between the nacelles and then transporting the supplies off the Enterprise. During all of this she manages to send an encoded message to the ship letting the crew know of her plan and Picard plays along. So let us hope the crew isn’t *this* incompetent and that the ship’s shields really don’t have a weak point behind the nacelles that get be gotten through under the right circumstances.

Back on the planet, the female soldier seems to be Team Ro now as she recounts their tale of how Ro managed to get the supplies, much to the impressment of other Maquis members. This episode really is Point Break/The Fast and the Furious. The leader also tells his impression with Ro, saying she’s one of them.

Following the raid on the Enterprise Ro has been entrusted with her own Maquis ship and is using it to give visit the ship to give Picard updates. She tells him about the Cardassians sneaking the biological weapons across the border, Picard finds that doubtful given the blockade but thinks they can use the theoretically bad intel to their advantage.

For a moment watching this it’s easy and quick to forget which side Picard, and supposedly Ro are on, and we go back into seeing this from a point of view of the rebels in Star Wars or the rebellion in Firefly and as Picard lays out his plan to trap the Maquis it’s easy to wonder if he’s on the “right side” of this issue. Obviously we, the audience, have more information than Picard does, particularly over a decade of story-telling later but just from a narrative stand point it’s easy to see how Picard is in the wrong here and what the Maquis are really about and how maybe they’re in the right but eventually going about it in the wrong manner as their actions become more terrorist-y.

But right now it is a wonder that Picard doesn’t find the intel of the Cardassians smuggling the bioweapons intriguing and instead puts 100% faith in Starfleet’s ability to maintain the blockade and not allow any military weapons through.

Ro seems uneasy about leading about Picard’s plan to essentially lead the Maquis into a trap but assures him she will do her duty.

The plan is to feed the Maquis bad intel that Cardassians are shipping in components for the bioweapons on alien transports, component that alone are not illegal to transport and that Starfleet is concerned that the imports could be used to make the bioweapons but is unable to do anything about it because of the treaty and technically nothing illegal is being done. The leader says he will spread the word and the various Maquis sects will formulate a plan.

Later, the leader confirms the sects plans to infiltrate the ships “smuggling” the goods across the borders and speaks to Ro about the celebration they will have following the mission, bringing up that damn Bajoran fermented dish again, and saying he’ll play some Bajoran instrument. Judging from the background music, the instrument must be a Bajoran panflute since that’s what we’re hearing right now. Ro talks about her father playing this instrument to calm her when she was scared as a child, and when he died she realized that not even her father could make the “monsters” go away. She’s obviously moving her fatherly connection here from Picard to the Maquis leader, particularly as he says they’ll go to the market and get stuff for a celebration for the sake of celebration. Let me guess, fermented Bajoran burrito thing?

Her and the old man walk through the village square, he guides her with his hand on her back for a bit as Picard did at the beginning of the episode, as the camera pans over to a trio of characters in oversized cloaks who don’t at all look suspicious with their slow pace, formation, and the fact they’re WEARING OVERSIZED CLOAKS!

The three cloaked figures are Cardassian soldiers who get to the top of a balcony and begin firing on people in the village, villagers run for cover as the Maquis soldiers begin distributing weapons and fire fight ensues. Several villagers are injured in the attack but eventually the trio of Cardassians are neutralized. But during the exchange of fire the old man is struck by a Cardassian weapon in the lethal area of the shoulder, even though the man he was helping seems fine and was struck in the torso, Ro goes to his aid, calling for a med kit which we all know is useless. The man dies implying that Ro will take his place in leading his Maquis cell.

Sometime later, Ro enters the cantina, “Not tonight,” she tells the alien male she made out with when she first came here, and approaches Picard who’s sitting at the bar. “Are you alone?” she asks, “I hope not,” he retorts, “Let’s get a table in the back where it’s private,” they both leave the bar and go to a little side table and position themselves as if they’re necking (Okay, they wanna-be lovers or is this a father/daughter relationship because now I’m getting creeped out) when they’re really talking into the other person’s ear to update the plans. Which, I dunno, I don’t think looks much like necking. But apparently this bar/planet has pretty tepid expectations of their prostitutes.

Ro thinks they need to cancel their operation. I get a bit distracted here and have to rewatch the scene a couple of times because there’s something about Michelle Forbe’s acting her with her love-doveyness in the way she “necks” with Picard and flirtingly caresses him as they continue their “lovers” façade.

Anyway, she tells Picard a story of how the Maquis don’t want to dedicate the necessary resources to stop the smuggling of the bioweapons but Picard sniffs out her lie and calls her on it. Here the mentor/father/lover or whatever façade drops and Picard pulls commander on her and implies she’ll be court-martialed and brought to a board of inquiry if she doesn’t complete the mission which they’re too far into now to back out. He further says he’s going to send Riker, posing as a relative, back with her to watch over things over. He stands, and picks up the latnium coins he had put on the table a moment earlier as Ro’s “price” and announces loudly to the room, “Sorry, I don’t have that kind of money.”

Sometime later, Picard logs that Riker has sent back a message saying how Riker and Ro have gotten the Maquis to go for the trap and the Enterprise waits in position to spring it.

The plan is for the Federation ships in a “convoy” to lure the Maquis ships into a position near a nebula and a fleet ships hiding in the nebula will perform an attack-and-capture on them once they cross the DMZ. Ro and Riker are in a separate ship that’s been pinged as a “friendly” ship the squadron won’t attack. As everyone gets into position, Ro stops the Maquis ship and pulls a phaser on Riker, apologizing to him, she activates a beam onto the nebula, which the Enterprise detects, and hails the Maquis ships to let them know of the Federation fleet hiding in the nebula.

The Maquis abandon the raid. Ro has become radicalized.

The Maquis ships aborted before crossing the DMZ border so the fleet is unable to capture them, Ro has her ship head towards the Enterprise, Picard says once she’s aboard to arrest her.

On the Maquis ship, Ro apologizes to Will and arranges to have a member of the Maquis transport her off the ship. She says her goodbyes to Will and asks that she passes her goodbyes, and regrets back to Picard. Riker, just sort of sits there even though you’d think he could totally try and stop her or something. Yeah, she has a phaser and the combat training but, come-on Will!

Riker hands in his report to Picard saying how Ro seemed determined she was doing the right thing and that her biggest worry was letting Picard down. Riker sets down the PADD and leaves the Ready Room as Picard stews us into a fade-to-black.

It’s been a pretty long time since I’ve really watched this episode, it’s not one I usually give much attention to during a re-watch, but after watching it this time around it’s an episode I’m very impressed with and I say this as someone who’s not too big of a fan of the “war” aspects introduced in DS9 at around this time. The story here is very interesting and it is a shame we never got a chance to see Ro again or resolve where things were left off between her and Picard.

It's very good work by Forbes who pretty much has to carry the penultimate episode of the series by herself which is a *lot* for a secondary character to get in any series but Forbes is able to do it very, very well. Stewart does a great job with Picard especially when he has to dance between being Ro’s surrogate father/mentor and finally her commanding officer, his last act with her to treat her like an, all-be-it high-dollar, hooker. Which maybe that has some layers to it on how Ro felt, where she was being used for someone else’s benefit (the Federations) as opposed to being part of something larger.

It’s sort-of too bad we never get any real conformation on the Cardassians smuggling things across the DMZ, which we know they totally were, and for Picard to realize that maybe for once he was on the wrong side of a fight, but alas.

A stronger episode than I remember. Is it suitable for the penultimate episode for the series? That I’m not so sure on. The final episode deals with the whole crew fairly well but is largely focused on Picard and Q, so this was truly a final chance to deal with “character stuff” that’s still out there, needs to be resolved or looked at closer since it wasn’t going to be something they’d be able to get to even if they did do as many movies as TOS did, and they were all high quality and not focused on just Data and Picard.

In a season that’s overall pretty damn weak with a lot of filler episodes, waste-of-time episodes and just some absolute shit you have an episode like this come along that shows that the remaining writers on TNG still had things to do and say with the characters and the setting. Sure, main characters aren’t dealt with much in this episode but some good, new, stuff is done with Picard and something we won’t see explored again. This episode showed that TNG still had potential particularly if it was able to tie more in with DS9 and do more serialized and connected story telling; if Berman were to allow such a thing given he’d likely be in control over TNG if it continued and there’d be no need for Voyager, particularly as we get into the “War Arc” which, though I’m not a fan of, could have also had the potential to be interesting even if TNG had only lasted one more season.

So here we are, down to the final. Hopefully I’ll have it done and up by the end of the year. Until next time, folks!

 

[suarezguy]

A big highlight of the last season and a strong farewell to Ro (and also a good prelude/companion to some of what would be done on DS9 and Voyager). It's a good example of what the series could still do when it was willing to focus on characters and not be afraid to take risks.

 

[Trekker4747]

Exactly. As I said, it was a surprise to me how much I liked this episode after seeing it again, actually watching it, after a long time.

 

[suarezguy]

I also think the episode works especially well as the penultimate episode-to end *that* episode on a bit of a downer and with ethical ambiguity, character conflict and a very unresolved armed political conflict is particularly impressive.

 

[Trekker4747]

Hey, everyone! Just want to let everyone know I'm working on the AGT "recap/review" but the end-of-year holidays/stress/work sort-of stalled me with everything I'm doing with it. A "recap review" and to break-up the monotonicity of it having screen caps and such in-line. The review is going to be hosted at a Blog site considering the post-size limitations here would mean, well, a handful of posts in a row for the entire thing.

It's a process for sure, I do hope to have it up by the end of January. It's just a matter of sitting down and finishing it.

 

[tomalak301]

If it wasn't for All Good Things, Preemptive Strike would be my favorite episode of the season. It's a top 10 episode of the series for me.

 

[Paradise City]

It's just a pity Ro disappears into a void after this episode. We never did learn her fate. Onscreen anyway.

 

[tomalak301]

It's just a pity Ro disappears into a void after this episode. We never did learn her fate. Onscreen anyway.

I liked what the novels did for her, at least the ones I've read which is still just a slight few.